House update

Today we are getting our well. Still no
electricity, so it won't do much good, but it's still exciting. Last week we dug the trench for the foundation and will probably have it poured this week. 

Fun at Valleywide

Domes

Now for the reason for our travels here. Rob has been very intrigued with these highly efficient structures, and figured that working to help build one, was the best way to learn about them. 

Because of the construction noise, and the hard hat, abby would not look at rob. For some reason, it made her very shy. 

Quanah museum

The town of Quanah, is named after an Indian. This museum used to be a popular train depot. It now holds the history of the town, and why it is dying. Several key business shut down, causing many to leave. There are many abandoned homes here. It's sad to see. You can tell that those people that are left, have pride in their town. Everyone is super friendly, and begging us to stay. 

Copper breaks state park

On Saturday, I took the kids to the state park. We first tried a hiking trail, since it was still too chilly to swim. The kids didn't like it much.  Too boring, and hot. 

Abby loved the hike, until she suddenly got too tired to walk, plunked herself down, slapped her legs emphatically and said, " No, no, no".  It was pretty funny. She did that several times. I'd pick her up and carry her for a while, she'd want down to walk herself, and then repeat the demonstration. 

After that hot hike, the kids were ready to test the waters. Normal temp is around 55 right now, but we had a heat wave so it was about 75 at the time. With the sun shining, and the trees as a wind break, the hike was hotter than we preferred. But, here in the swimming area, there were close to no trees, and it was a very windy day, add that to no humidity (desert), it made for cold swimming. 

That didn't last long, and I was forced to make them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, being careful to hold the slice of bread to keep it from flying away. 

Rob got off work early, so we headed back to get him, and when we returned, the Rangers took us to where they feed the Texas Longhorns. The kids had the opportunity to feed them, but didn't want to. Rob and I did, and after a while, Daniel and Mary ventured to try. It was hard to not get slobbered on. (The picture does not do justice to the massive size of these animals, and their horns)

Fishing is free at the state park, no liscense required, so I bought a kit from Walmart, to try it out. I think I touched a pole once, when I was a kid, but that being the extent of my experience, it took a while to put the thing together. I was not surprised that we didn't catch anything, but I attribute that to the relentless wind causing noisy waves on the lake. Isaac was sure excited to try. He was the most enthusiastic. 

We wound up the day by finding a campsite, in the trees for a wind break, and had a hot dog roast. While daddy got the fire going, they had a blast climbing trees, and sneaking through the forest to "spy" on the other campers. Sarah persuaded me to join the fun, but I had to call them all back when I noticed they were getting far, and I heard barking in the distance that I thought could be wolves. Shortly after dark, we headed back. 

Our little Texas house

After two nights at a hotel, I was ready to give up. We'd contacted a landlord about  renting for a few months, but he said he'd have to think about it. I decided to buy a nice tent, in case we ended up having to camp 15 miles away at the state park. We both prayed hard that the landlord would take us, and he did. Now, we are only half a block from the dome Rob is working on. The house is only a three bed, one bath; but it's a lot better than camping in the cold would have been. And no commute, so I get to keep the car, and "visit" the state park while rob is at work. (It also has a fenced in backyard, extra plus with abby on the loose). 

The kids have already made fast friends with the neighbor kids, and love to play frisbie in the backyard. 

Christmas

This year Christmas was a bit unusual for us.  We had decided to take a trip to Florida for the Christmas break, so we did Christmas early, about six days early.  Friday morning we woke up to have our Christmas celebrations.  Last year the lights on our pre-lit tree died, and it was a small tree, so we decided to give it away and get a new one this year.  Well, because of all the travel preparations and house remodeling, a new tree just didn't get bought.  So, I pulled out some green stuff (can't remember what it's called) and made a tree on our lamp.  The kids loved it.  I thought it was tacky, but hey, it was better than nothing.

From the complaining of previous years, I told the kids that they weren't getting anything big this year, that I was just getting things for the whole family.  They ended up getting snack bags of chips and a dollar store flashlight, in their stockings.  The family got a puzzle, hot wheel car sets, and bandaloon sets (the rubber band bracelets).  Also, we picked names and I told the kids that they couldn't spend money for their gifts.  They had to make something.  I coached them that the things they received from each other would probably not be something cool, but to appreciate the time and energy that the other person put into it.  Besides making something for their person they picked, they decided to give random old toys to each other.  And, that was it.  This was the happiest Christmas we've ever had.  No complaining, whining, or anything.

We opened presents, played for a little bit, and then packed up to leave.  We drove about an hour and half when the car started smoking.  I had begged to bring a trailer rigged up for camping, but the car just couldn't take it, so we headed back.  Rob's brother had a motorhome that needed some cleaning up, but was available, so we got that ready and headed out again.  This time, we stopped about a half hour away, for gas, and then didn't start again.  Rob's brother came to save us.  It was something that could be fixed pretty simply, but, we took it as a sign that we shouldn't leave quite yet.  Besides, by the time we got home, it was 8:00 pm.  So, life went on as usual.  Except for the fact that we were in a sort of time warp.  Christmas was over for us, but not anyone else.  The kids got presents at church, people were dropping stuff by, and I was also doing some delivering.  It was just weird.  And then, of course, we still had Christmas Eve and Christmas day, at home, so something HAD to be done.

Christmas Eve, I prepared a cracker tray and a veggie tray, and made pizza rolls.  I played Christmas music in the background while we ate, and then we played fun family games together.  It was a fun Christmas Eve party, with just us.  After the games, we watched Frosty the Snowman and a Chipmunk Christmas movie.

I had already cleaned up my makeshift tree, so I made a tree out of some construction paper I had sitting around.  I didn't have enough green, so I used a little blue, but it turned out pretty cute, and was a fun surprise for the kids when they woke up.  We wrapped some money for each of them, so they would still get something (I had planned on giving money originally, but forgot, so this actually worked out good).  Still not the typical Christmas morning, since we already did that, but, instead of being exhausted from the preparations, I have energy to do other things, like take the kids caroling to people who are lonely for Christmas.  You know, I think this is a new Christmas tradition I'd like to keep up.  This has been the best Christmas so far, (not counting when the kids were too young to 'care' about what they got for Christmas).